UPDATE 2-Philippines braces for broader Mideast conflict, orders more evacuations

* Government orders citizens to leave Iraq, Iran and Lebanon
* Patrol vessel to sail to Middle East to assist in
evacuation
* More than 2 mln Philippine citizens live and work there
* Government also preparing air and navel assets

(Adds details, comments from officials)
By Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - The Philippines is bracing for a
broader conflict in the Middle East, ordering the evacuation of
tens of thousands more of its citizens from the region after
Iran fired rockets at U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
The order to leave Iran and Lebanon followed a previously
announced mandatory evacuation of citizens from Iraq, Labour
Secretary Silvestre Bello said on Wednesday.
It would be a "nightmare" if the conflict between Iran and
the Philippines' close ally, the United States, turned into a
full-blown war, Bello said, but the government was readying
measures to assure jobs for those who returned.
"We appeal to them to go home," he added. "When conditions
get better, they can return if they want to."
More than 2 million Philippine citizens live and work in the
Middle East, sending home billions of dollars in annual
remittances that could be dented by a full-scale conflict.
More than 30,000 of these are in Lebanon, and more than
1,000 in Iran, excluding undocumented labourers, Bello said.
The foreign ministry said more than half of the 1,600
Filipinos working in Iraq, were in the Kurdistan region and the
rest at U.S. and other foreign facilities in Baghdad and in
commercial establishments in Erbil.
A Philippine patrol vessel, newly acquired from France and
en route to the Philippines, was ordered to sail to Oman and
Dubai to assist citizens who may need to be extricated, the
coast guard said in a statement.
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, a retired general named by
President Rodrigo Duterte as special envoy to the Middle East,
will leave for Qatar on Thursday before heading to Baghdad to
oversee the evacuation effort.
Cimatu, who oversaw a similar move during the Iraq war, said
the current conflict presented more challenges as it was not
confined only to Baghdad.
"It is a guessing game which would be the next target,"
Cimatu told reporters.
Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said there are plans to
send two battalions of troops and marines to Iraq to assist the
evacuation.
Philippine workers in the Middle East sent home $5.4 billion
in remittances in the period from January to October last year,
making up a fifth of total flows in that time, making the region
a major source of foreign exchange inflows that help drive
growth in a consumption-led economy.
Iran's missile attack in the early hours of Wednesday came
hours after the funeral of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of
its elite Quds Force killed in a U.S. drone strike last week.
On Twitter, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said no
Philippine citizen was hurt in the attack, based on an initial
report from the United States.